Madeline Halpert

Yeah, you're right.

We're at a really polarizing moment in the U.S.

in terms of the debate about vaccines.

Anti-vaccine views have kind of been on the rise in the U.S.

for a long time, and I think were kind of exacerbated during the pandemic.

And, you know, these are one sort of fringe views.

They've now kind of entered the much more mainstream with the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

as health secretary under President Donald Trump.

This is a person who's long expressed unsubstantiated views about vaccines, including that they have ties to autism, which has obviously been debunked

And so since Kennedy has been appointed as health secretary, he's made a number of kind of massive changes to who and how we recommend vaccines in the U.S.

And that advisory committee has made a number of changes to vaccine recommendations, including last year they ended the recommendation we've had for a long time in the U.S.

to vaccinate all newborn babies against hepatitis B. The CDC under Kennedy has also greatly slashed the number of vaccines that they recommend to children.

So we've seen just a lot of changes.

And, you know, the response from Democratic states and well-respected medical associations has, of course, been to push back and

and offer their own sort of recommendations that mirror health recommendations before Kennedy came along.

But what we've seen is these once sort of really stigmatized and fringe views have become more mainstream, and we're seeing other changes as a result.

I mean, vaccination rates are continuing to fall.

We're seeing one of the worst measles outbreaks in the U.S.

in decades, and health experts think that other vaccine-preventable illnesses will follow.

I would just add that what I can tell you from speaking to a lot of Americans, including many who have anti-vaccine views, is that, yes, there are people like RFK who, you know, he's in a position of authority and they're getting information from him.